Hi from Richmond, I'll be driving thru Concord tomorrow for a job interview in Lynchburg.......
I only have one hive that I started in June 2008. Didn't take honey first year, and had high hopes for this year....nada.
I kept up with inspections, hive seemed busy...tons of bees, but honey didn't build as I had hoped. Toward late August, there were so many bees, and so little nectar, that I believe my hive consumed most of there available stores....
Since I hadn't taken anything from them..I wanted to be hard headed and not feed them..but an early October inspection made me feel compelled to feed them at least a bit...
Anyway, I use a Boardman feeder inside, on top of hive enclosed with an empty hive body. The bees were fanatical sucking it down. They could go thru a quart in 6 hours. If you opened the hive top before they were through with the jar, it was total chaos in that empty hive body. It was inevitable that you would smash a few just reclosing the top.
I guess my answer poses the following questions:
Had you inspected prior to starting the feeding?
Was there a noticeable difference in stores or bee population?
Take care, and give me some honey.............I am getting tired of spoiling my bees without getting any love back.... :-D